Wednesday, February 20, 2013

bandcamp roundup, part two - black metal labels.

as should be pretty obvious by what I post on this blog, black metal is easily my favorite metal subgenre. what started out as a narrow, primarily scandinavian, journey into the darkest depths of human suffering has become incredibly diverse, reflecting a wide variety of sounds, ideologies, and nationalities. black metal from countries as disparate as south america, china, australia, and south africa have all added their own contributions to the larger community.

the sound of black metal has also transmogrified, becoming something that it's creators could never have foreseen - whether it's ambience, noise, punk, or classical orchestration, if you can imagine it, someone's probably done it (but whether they've been successful or not is a whole other story...). needless to say, the reason I started this blog was to share black metal, so with this post I'm bringing the blog back to its roots.

here are my recent black metal bandcamp favorites:

fallen empire - let's start off with an obvious one. I'm sure you're all familiar with fallen empire but I had to give them a shout-out here just for being so great - great music, great packaging, great customer service, and great people. all of their releases are not only excellent, but available digitally for as much (or as little) as you see fit.

legion blotan - this is another one that should be familiar to any faithful readers of this blog, as I've posted a couple of their releases in the past. and although their bandcamp isn't as fully-stocked as one might hope, they still have some great releases up that can be difficult to track down in any other format.

sol y nieve - while not strictly black metal, this label put out my favorite split of last year, between yellow eyes and monument, and their releases have some of the best packaging around. anything from teeth to feathers can be found in sol y nieve releases and the music never disappoints. plus, everything is pay-what-you-like on bandcamp.

milam records - here's one you might not be familiar with, but milam is definitely an up-and-comer in the black metal underground. not only did they release the tape version of mare cognitum's excellent "the sea which has become known" last year, they also have a fantastic soon-to-be-released split between ekadzati and bleakwood. definitely keep an eye on this one, I'm sure more great material is in the works.

tagobella - my friend at forever cursed turned me on to this label recently. they've released a wide variety of sounds, but their bands fanapth and doth have released some excellent, noisy black metal in the vein of early sutekh hexen. definitely check out fanapth's untitled 2012 demo, which is still available on cassette from the label's webstore.

broken limbs recordings - this is one whose recordings I knew but was unfamiliar with the label itself. and what better way to rectify that than with a quick look through their extensive bandcamp discography? featuring albums from yellow eyes, sun worship, vattnet viskar, and fhoi myore, this is a treasure-trove of excellent modern black metal and shoegaze. not everything is free, but it's all worthwhile.

band-specific black metal bandcamp roundup coming soon...

and, as always, feel free to mention some of your own favorites in the comments below.